S03 Episode 1
Dien Bien Phu: a Losing Battle
Since the end of the 19th century, Indochina has been a flourishing colony, the gem of the French Empire. However, the Second World War turns everything upside down. At the end of the war, the Viet Minh movement announces the independence. The general Leclerc is thus in charge of restoring the French authority. However, on the spot, he realizes that the situation is not controllable and initiates negotiations. But in high places, there is no question of giving in. An unpopular and very tough war breaks out, a conflict which will end in the hell of Dien Bien Phu.
30 mins · Sun, 3 Feb 2019
S03 Episode 2
Encyclopedia, dare to know
July 31,1784, Paris. Denis Diderot has just passed away and with him, the memory of the biggest editorial epic of the Age of Enlightenment : Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts. This monumental œuvre is before anything else the result of the fight of a man against obscurantism and of his unfailing trust in reason. Carried by men such as Voltaire or Rousseau, the adventure will last 25 years. It will encounter numerous unforeseen developments and end in clandestinity but won’t fail to revolutionize the publishing world.
30 mins · Sun, 10 Feb 2019
S03 Episode 3
Miners, fodder of the industrial revolution
University of Glasgow, England, 1763. A young engineer tries, in vain, to fix a steam engine before finally understanding what is wrong with it. James Watt still doesn’t know it but he will soon revolutionize the world of industry. From the end of the 18th century, in the depths of the earth, night and day, men scrape, prick and dig interminable and dangerous galleries. True soldiers of the abyss, miners tirelessly pull coal, the main source of energy of the country, up to the surface. This black rock will become the vital fuel of the industrial revolution. The whole Europe will be transformed by the coal revolution but at what price?
30 mins · Sun, 3 Mar 2019
S03 Episode 4
Carthage, Rome's rival
In 814 BC, the exiled Phoenician queen Dido founds the city of Carthage on the African Coast. The city develops and takes the lead of a real maritime empire based on trade. Carthage dominates the Western Mediterranean at that time. But in the third century BC, she finds herself opposed to the Roman Republic, which has just achieved the conquest of Italy. Between the two ambitious cities, the confrontation is unavoidable. Led by the General Hannibal, Carthage will inflict dreadful defeats on Romans and lead Rome on the verge of ruin.
30 mins · Sun, 17 Mar 2019
S03 Episode 5
Augustus, emperor of the Republic
At the end of a succession of civil wars which have weakened the Roman Republic, Caesar proclaims himself dictator for life. However, on March 14, 44 BC, he is assassinated by conspirators in the name of the Republic. Mark Antony, his right arm, succeeds in making of Caesar a martyr and tries to claim his inheritance for himself. But the late Caesar had drawn up a will in which he had declared he adopted his great-nephew Octavian, who will later be renamed Augustus. The latter, without any resources, will achieve the unthinkable : to transform the Republic into an Empire.
30 mins · Sun, 31 Mar 2019
S03 Episode 6
Apartheid, the spiral of fear
August 5, 1962, South Africa. After several months on the run, the Black leader Nelson Mandela is arrested by the South African police and incarcerated in Robben island, a fortress-like jail off Cape Town. He doesn’t know it at that time, but it is only the beginning of his penitential ordeal. Despite this imprisonment, he will quickly become the symbol of the fight against apartheid. A complex and terrifying system of racial segregation is hidden behind this word. Instituted from 1948 by the National Party, apartheid will plunge the country into a continuous climate of insecurity until the end of the 20th century.
30 mins · Sun, 14 Apr 2019
S03 Episode 7
Lawrence of Arabia, for a fistful of sand
1916, the Great War is raging in Europe. Far away from the trenches, in the sand of the Middle East, war has a very different face. All the grounds of the “land of Damascus”, but also the holy places of Islam, are then in the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The archaeologist Thomas Edward Lawrence, a resourceful adventurer, is an English agent present on site. With a handful of intrepid men, he leads the revolt of the Arabs alongside Sharif Hussein, traditional steward of Mecca and Medina. Using at best the forces at his disposal, he gains the Arabs’ trust and becomes: Lawrence of Arabia.
30 mins · Sun, 21 Apr 2019
S03 Episode 8
Gandhi, the force of willpower
In May 1893, a man is thrown out of a train, on the platforms of the train station of Pietermaritzburg, a little city of South Africa, for daring to sit in a first-class compartment. This young Indian lawyer by the name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, has disembarked on the continent just a few days before and is having there his first experiences of racism and violence. Of this South-African life, that will last twenty-one years, Ghandi will learn lessons that will fuel his long non-violent struggle for the independence of his great country, then under British domination: India.
30 mins · Sun, 28 Apr 2019
S03 Episode 9
Champollion, unravelling the mysteries of the stone
In July 1799, in the middle of the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, the French soldiers of lieutenant Bouchard discover by chance at Rosetta a large black stone. This stone, also known as the “Rosetta Stone”, is in fact the fragment of a stele engraved in honor of King Ptolemy V, including three writing systems: Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphic. Soon, the scientists of the expedition record the stone's incriptions, before it is taken from them by the English on their return to France. On September 14, 1822, with the help of the precious copies of the Rosetta stone inscriptions and thanks to his genius intuition, Jean-François Champollion manages to unravel the mystery of the hieroglyphs.
30 mins · Sun, 5 May 2019
S03 Episode 10
Cook in pursuit of the southern lands
In 1415, the Portuguese launch a great era of explorations that will lead to the European discovery of the world. In the Age of Enlightenment, the competition is intense between France and the United Kingdom for the possession of North America and the West Indies, for the Indian colonies, but also for Science. The two powers want to further knowledge in all fields, and discover all the still unknown lands. To this end, they have to face the immensity of the Pacific Ocean, crossed by Magellan in 1521, and believed to be home to a mythical Austral continent...
30 mins · Sun, 19 May 2019
S03 Episode 11
Deepwater, an ocean of oil
Rented by the BP oil company to drill an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes on April 20, 2010, before sinking into the ocean and causing a gigantic oil spill. At issue: negligence in the maintenance and in the tests carried out. On September 19, after months of unsuccessful attempts, the spill is finally declared sealed. But the harm has been done: this incident has generated the biggest marine oil disaster in history, tragically impacting the local ecosystems and economy.
30 mins · Sun, 26 May 2019
S03 Episode 12
Vikings, assault on the Frankish empire
While the Viking raids have come one after another in the Occident for almost a century, in November 885, hundreds of Scandinavian boats sailing towards Burgundy present themselves before the walls of Paris and besiege the city. The stubborn resistance of Count Odo makes it possible for the besieged to resist until the arrival of Emperor Charles the Fat, who, in exchange for a large amount of money, obtains the withdrawal of the Scandinavians. To protect themselves from the Viking threat, the king of the Franks, Charles the Simple, suggests, in 911, a treaty to the Viking chief Rollon, to whom he abandons lands in exchange for the protection of the Seine estuary. It is the beginning of the Duchy of Normandy.
30 mins · Sun, 2 Jun 2019
S03 Episode 13
Kursk, The USRS strikes back
In the spring of 1943, after the successive failures of Moscow and Stalingrad, the armies of the Reich go on the offensive again. Launched on July 5th, operation Citadel plans on circling and eliminating, around Kursk, the forces of the Red Army, which have moved forward too much. But, after only 8 days of fighting, Hitler, confronted to a heroic resistance, must resolve to stop the offensive. Considered the greatest tank battle in History, this event represents a real turning point of World War II on the Eastern Front.
30 mins · Sun, 9 Jun 2019
